Title of the Study: An Integrated Programme for The Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Furniture Sector in Three Selected Provinces: 2004-2006

Type of the Study: Research – Evaluation Report (The work has been conducted within the scope of the ILO-IPEC Programme.)

Author of the Study: Ministry of Labor and Social Security Department of Labor Inspection Commission

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: 2005, Ankara

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 100

Purpose: Determination of bad working conditions of child workers, their working reasons, social and cultural situations in Ankara, İzmir ve Bursa in the furniture sector, and proposal of possible and plausible actions to immediately eliminate their bad working conditions

Content: Introduction section explains wood works as a sector. Then selection of study areas, research method, sampling, findings and demographical properties of working children are discussed. Demographical properties of families and employers are listed, and working conditions are probed into in detail. The study is ended with outcomes and proposals.

Method: Field studies are made in 364 workplaces in Ankara, 210 workplaces in İzmir and 126 workplaces in Bursa. Workplaces are randomly chosen from the address list of each city. Because the address lists prepared for three cities contain no information about the firms, mono-stage layered sampling has been used instead of multi-staged.

Excerpt: In consideration of working conditions and environments faced by children at workplaces, all of the children under the age of 15 have to be taken away from working life, and children aged between 15-18 must be taken away from heavy works such as wood works negatively affecting their physical and mental development. P.66

Some keywords: apprenticeship, furniture production sector, poverty

Title of the Study: Izmir Project Report for Orienting Working Children to Education

Type of the Study: Research – Evaluation Report (The work has been conducted within the scope of the ILO-IPEC Programme.)

Author of the Study: Ministry of Labor and Social Security Department of Labor Inspection Directorate

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: 2005, Ankara

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 215

Purpose: This project aims to increase the cooperation between agencies, orienting children to education, elimination of worst forms of child labor in chosen sectors, improvement of working conditions and environments of workplaces, reducing family poverty and preventing children from entering the working life and increasing the public sensitivity.

Content: First part makes a determination as to the situation of children working in the world and in Turkey. Part two describes the ground, purposes and cooperation of the project. Part three presents the data obtained in the project aimed at orienting children working in İzmir to education. Part four discuss the activities realized within the frame of the project.

Method: This study covered 690 working children at and under the age of 18 working in İzmir in automotive sector in industrial zones no 1-6, Işıkkent shoemakers industrial zone and apparel textile zone.

Excerpt: Increasing public sensitivity, actions taken and results achieved must be shared with the public. Particularly the achievements and developments and positive change in children will attract more attention from the public and persons and organizations wishing to contribute these efforts will take action. p.193

Some keywords: apprenticeship, ILO-IPEC, public sensitivity, poverty

Title of the Study: Child Employment in Labour Code

Type of the Study: Master Thesis

Author of the Study: Emine Berrin Turan

Presentation,

Year/Place of Publication: İstanbul, 2004 (Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences Department of Law)

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 162

Purpose: Study of the legal dimension of child employment.

Content: Part one discusses the regulations forming the legal basis of child labour. Part two gives a description of child and child labour concept is explained and basic concepts on this subject are given by revealing the difference of this concept from apprentice and trainee.

Method: Literature scanning method is used.

Excerpt: Another difference between apprentice and child worker is that apprenticeship contract is for the time period until 19 years of age, thereafter the apprenticeship contract between the parties will terminate as a rule but as an exception the previous apprenticeship contract with an apprentice who has terminated the age of 18 before its contract has expired will survive the termination of contract. (p.95)

Some keywords: apprenticeship, child workers, national regulation

Zeytinoğlu, S.(1989) “The State Of Children In Turkey”, Child Policy of 1990’s Congress, DPT-UNICEF publications, Ankara, p. 241-252.

Number of Works Cited: 10

Scope:

In the presentation, a panoromic vision of child labour in today’s world is pictured and the problem of child exploitation is discussed by defining the related concepts. The apprentice training, and the protection of children with legal regulations and their effectivity and defects are explained. Also suggestions to the problems of working children are presented.

An Exscerpt from the Article:

In today’s world millions of children are exploited in situations far worse than taking part in simple family labour division. Within the industrialisation process masses of people migrated from rural areas to cities and the ineffective social services to the poor and insufficeint employment opportunities for survival resulted in the participation of children in workforce outside of the family. (p.242)

Some Key Words:

family, working children, apprentice training, apprenticeship, child abuse, migration

Tezgider, G.(1979); “The State Of Children In The Professional Life”, Çalışma Dergisi, Magazine January-April, p. 57-66.

Number of Works Cited: –

Scope:

In the article the differences in income distribution and the places where children work are discussed. The constitutional side of child labour is explained and the ruthless exploitation of children in labour markets and the destruction of physical, menthal and ethical development of children is emphasised. Also the working children are far away from school, social security and social protection. And it is also discussed if the student status given to apprentices helps the exploitation or not. Also the trade union membership and activities of apprentices are restricted.

An Excerpt from the Article:

Everday the need for determining the minimum age for working, the cutting of work hours and strengthening the law sanctions is discussed. But even these insufficient laws are not applied in practice. We can say that the laws which are violated the most are the ones concerning the protection against child labour. The children are forced to work for more than 8 hours and their health examinations are never done. Even if the sanctions of laws are ineffect there is not much to do as the employer has to pay 1500 liras if violated the laws. Child health is that cheap. (p.62)

Some Key Words:

minimum age, apprenticeship, child development, reasons of child labour, child health, trade unions, social security, national regulation

Sencer, Y.; Erbilgin, K.( 1978 ); “The Problems Of Our Apprentices: The Results Of A Field Survey”, First National Occupational Health Congress, 19-21 October 1978, İstanbul, p. 550-559.

Number of Works Cited: 4

Scope:

The social features, occupational and life conditions of apprentices working in different parts of İstanbul are examined. For this purpose interviews are done with 319 apprentices from different sectoral backgrounds. Also, the legislation’s (no. 2089 Apprentice, Experinced Apprentice and Masterstroke) reflection on practice and level of gaining validity is tested. The report is an excerpt of the data acquired and it is the first study about apprentices.

An Excerpt from the Article:

The fact that more than %80 of apprentices born out of İstanbul are the children of families migrated to İstanbul after 1965 is taking attention. It is mentioned that the reason for migration of apprentices are %58 unemployment-bad straits-insuficient amount of land. (p.553)

Some Key Words:

working conditions, apprentice training, apprenticeship, apprentice-experienced apprentice-masterworkman system, migration

Öke, M.K.(1979); “A Sociaological Survey on the Working Conditions of the Apprentices in Ankara’’, Çalışma Magazine, January- April, p. 37-56.

Number of Works Cited: –

Scope:

The article is based on the survey conducted in the Ankara’s Siteler and Sanayi Çarşısı(Industrial Bazaar) area where 40 apprentices in 15 different work places are questioned and interview with Çırak-Der Ankara Branch Representative. There are 41 questions on the poll and the questions were about their ages, former places they worked, their experiences, their social security status, occupational safety and health attitudes, their involvement in the actual production process, their wages, distance between the Ministry of Labour’s occupational inspectors and them, their educational backgrounds, reason to start work, number of their brothers and sisters, amount of hours they can rest a day, and etc. Also legal issues are discussed.

An Excerpt from the Article:

The results of the survey shows that they are literally involved in the production process and whatever the coercion is they are not students and they can’t be either. They are non-qualified young workers and they have no difference from the elder labour force apart from their ages. Therefore, these young workers should find a place in the legal framework so that they can benefit from the protective side of the labour laws. The industrial apprenticeship concept can not be admitted in Turkey as this means the legal exploitation of the young workers using the legal framework. This whole concept should be eliminated from the literature cause whatever the legal procedures are the system can not be corrected. (p.44-45)

Some Key Words:

working conditions, apprenticeship, occupational accident, occupational safety and health, sociology

Mangır M.; Aral N.; Köksal A.(1993); ”Reasons For Working Of The Children Attending Apprentice Training Centers”, Kültür Gençlik Magazine, January-April, Ministry of Culture, Ankara, p. 43-45.

Number of Works Cited: –

Scope:

Children that attend Siteler Apprentice Training Center from metal, upholstery and woodwork sectors are selected using simple random sampling model in pairs of 60. It is found that although economic contribution to family, and lack of education opportunities are factors effecting child labour the main reason is unemployment and poverty related to this. The necessitiy of the active participation of the society for children’s escape from the negative working conditions and for becoming ones that can safely look at the future and who are fully emotionally, methally and socially developed are emphasised.

An Excerpt from the Article:

But unemployment, and poverty caused as a conseqounce of this fact lies in the base of fundamental reasons. Therefore, studies should be done to overcome unemployment and preventive measures should be taken. (p.45)

Some Key Words:

working children, working conditions, apprentice training, apprenticeship, unemployment, poverty